World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

0 komentar

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk


Indianapolis shooting: eight killed at FedEx facility

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 12:27 AM PDT

Multiple other people injured before suspected gunman killed himself, say police

At least eight people have been shot and killed at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the suspected gunman killed himself, police have said.

Multiple other people were injured and went to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong pro-democracy figures given jail terms of up to 18 months

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:04 AM PDT

Media mogul Jimmy Lai and veteran activist Lee Cheuk Yan each sentenced to 12 months over protests

A group of high-profile Hong Kong pro-democracy activists including the media mogul Jimmy Lai have been sentenced to jail terms of up to 18 months for organising or attending "unauthorised assemblies" during mass protests that rocked the city in 2019.

In the latest blow to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, Lai and the veteran activist Lee Cheuk Yan were each sentenced to 12 months in jail. Another activist, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, received the longest sentence, of 18 months, while Martin Lee, an 82-year-old barrister widely known as the father of Hong Kong democracy, and Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former legislator, were given 11 and 12 months respectively, both sentences suspended for two years.

Continue reading...

Biden hits Russia with new sanctions in response to election meddling

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 02:25 PM PDT

Ten diplomats expelled as part of fresh package of sanctions announced by US president as Russia says retaliation 'inevitable'

The Biden administration has announced the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats and broad sanctions against Russian officials and companies in retaliation for Moscow's interference in elections and cyber-espionage campaigns such as the SolarWinds hack.

The sanctions, which were the Biden administration's largest punitive action against the Kremlin yet, also targeted six Russian cybersecurity companies deemed to be involved in the SolarWinds hack, as well as 32 individuals and entities deemed to be involved in efforts to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

Continue reading...

Video appears to show Chicago police shooting Adam Toledo, 13, as he raised his hands

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 06:06 PM PDT

Chicago mayor urges calm in the city as body-cam footage of fatal shooting of Toledo is released for first time

Body camera video footage released for the first time on Thursday appears to show a Chicago police officer fatally shooting Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old, as he raised his hands into the air.

The footage has ignited fresh outrage in the city where Toledo was shot last month. On Thursday, Chicago's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, stood alongside Latino community leaders and called for calm.

Continue reading...

EU and UK hold ‘productive’ talks on Northern Ireland crisis

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:03 AM PDT

Brexit minister David Frost says momentum has been established in efforts to ease tensions

Talks between the EU and UK to ease tensions in Northern Ireland have been described as "productive" and "constructive" with momentum now established to achieve a solution to the crisis, the Brexit minister, David Frost, has said.

But the EU used the first face-to-face meeting since lockdown between Lord Frost and the European commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, to warn that the outcome needed to be jointly agreed.

Continue reading...

Beijing hit by third sandstorm in five weeks

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 06:36 PM PDT

Dust blown in from drought-hit areas to the north sends pollution soaring to twice the hazardous level

The third major sandstorm in five weeks turned Beijing's skies sepia on Thursday, and sent air quality plummeting in the Chinese capital.

The storms, caused by winds from drought-hit Mongolia and north-western China, sent levels of the pollutant PM10, which can penetrate the lung, to 999 micrograms per cubic metre – a level almost double the "hazardous" stage indicated by the Beijing air pollution real time quality index.

Continue reading...

Prince Philip: William and Harry to walk apart as Queen sits alone at funeral

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 10:26 AM PDT

Brothers will be separated by cousin Peter Phillips as they walk behind coffin, Buckingham Palace reveals

The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex will walk apart for their grandfather's funeral, which is likely to see the Queen sitting alone, details released by Buckingham Palace reveal.

Prince William and Prince Harry, whose troubled relationship was further strained after the Sussexes' controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, will be separated by their cousin Peter Phillips as they walk behind the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh on Saturday.

Continue reading...

An end to cigarettes? New Zealand aims to create smoke-free generation

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 07:27 PM PDT

Proposals include making sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2004 illegal

New Zealand has announced a suite of proposals aimed at outlawing smoking for the next generation and moving the country closer to its goal of being smoke-free by 2025.

The plans include the gradual increase of the legal smoking age, which could extend to a ban on the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to anyone born after 2004, making smoking effectively illegal for that generation.

Continue reading...

Simon & Schuster refuses to distribute book by officer who shot Breonna Taylor

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:27 AM PDT

US publishing giant was due to distribute Jonathan Mattingly's The Fight for Truth for rightwing outlet Post Hill Press

Simon & Schuster has said that it will not be distributing a book by one of the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, after a small publisher whose books are distributed through S&S announced the book to widespread criticism.

The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy is by Sgt Jonathan Mattingly, a Louisville, Kentucky, officer who shot Taylor and was wounded in the raid on her home in March last year. The book is being published by Post Hill Press, a small independent that specialises in "conservative politics" and Christian titles, and home to authors including far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and the embattled Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.

Continue reading...

French citizens advised to leave Pakistan as protests worsen

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 11:17 AM PDT

Pakistani government bans religious leader as row over satirical cartoons simmers

French nationals and companies in Pakistan have been advised by their embassy to leave temporarily after violent anti-France protests brought large parts of the country to a standstill.

Anti-French sentiment has been simmering for months in Pakistan since Emmanuel Macron expressed support for a satirical magazine's right to republish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Continue reading...

Fyre festival attendees to receive $7,000 each in settlement

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 01:49 AM PDT

New York bankruptcy court rules in favour of payout to 277 people who travelled to Bahamas for notorious 'luxury' event

A group of 277 attendees at the notorious Fyre festival are to receive settlement payouts of $7,220 (£5,240) each after the conclusion of a lawsuit against the organisers.

The 2017 event drew global attention after the supposedly luxury music experience, promoted by supermodels and set to feature artists such as Major Lazer and Migos, turned out to resemble a disaster relief camp with windswept tents and decidedly non-gourmet food. Attendees had spent between $1,000 and $12,000 on tickets to the festival, which was cancelled on its opening day.

Continue reading...

Spreading faster, hitting harder – why young Brazilians are dying of Covid

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Highly transmissible variant and behavioural factors blamed as intensive care units fill with younger patients

One month after Michel Castro's premature brush with death, the coronavirus infection has receded but the nightmares persist.

In them the 31-year-old father relives the spine-chilling scenes he witnessed as his Covid-hit body battled for survival in a Rio ICU. The six-month-old baby who appeared to be suffocating right next to him. The man urinating blood after his kidneys failed. The unnerving bleep-bleep-bleep of machines warning doctors that yet another life was on the line.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: India extends record daily run of new infections; Japan to expand quasi-emergency measures

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:34 AM PDT

Spike in Indian cases spurred by hundreds of positive tests at major religious gathering; Japan to extend Covid restrictions to 10 regions

The French president Emmanuel Macron told local mayors in a video-link up last night that the epidemic was likely to progress in France over the next 8 to 10 days, with a peak of infections between the 25 April and 30 April, and a peak in hospital admissions between now and the end of the month.

The government spokesman said this morning that creches, nursery schools and primary schools would definitely re-open as planned on 26 April, with secondary schools following on 3 May. The government has not yet set a date for gradually re-opening outdoor dining or museums, which could progressively begin from mid-May, and might be organised by region.

Monaco has announced it is easing health restrictions, without resolving fully whether fans would be allowed at its Formula One grand prix next month.

"Monaco is taking its decisions in the light of its own situation, in full sovereignty but also in mutual agreement with France," the principality's minister of state Pierre Dartout told a press briefing.

Continue reading...

Covid booster shot could be needed after nine to 12 months, White House says

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 04:54 PM PDT

Pfizer CEO has also said it is 'likely' people will need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year

The US is preparing for the possibility that a booster shot will be needed between nine and 12 months after people are initially vaccinated against Covid-19, a White House official said on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Malawi to bin 16,000 AstraZeneca doses amid fears of rise in vaccine hesitancy

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 10:15 PM PDT

Authorities act to counter rumours out-of-date shots are being used as people drag their heels over being vaccinated

More than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses are to be destroyed in Malawi as concerns over vaccine hesitancy increase.

The vaccines are among 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month.

Continue reading...

‘A poor man’s rainforest’: why we need to stop treating soil like dirt

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 10:00 PM PDT

The mysterious world under our feet is under threat. Protecting it is as vital as tackling the climate crisis, scientists warn

Hidden under our feet is a miniature landscape made up of tunnels, caves and decaying matter. Soil is where a quarter of the species on our planet are believed to live and in this dark, quiet, damp world, death feeds life. Rotting leaves, fruits, plants and organisms are folded into the soil and burped out as something new.

Good soil structure provides many nooks and crannies that house organisms, which, in turn, create an environment that suits them, directly altering – and improving – the structure of soil. Like a collective of tiny chemists, they keep soils healthy and productive by passing nutrients between them, either by collaborating or killing each other.

Continue reading...

From Beethoven’s Ninth to Theme from Shaft: the best exercise anthems

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 01:00 AM PDT

Soul classics, German film soundtracks and chugging rap – here's a workout of bangers to get you off the couch

Continue reading...

From the coronation to The Crown: how Prince Philip fell out of love with TV

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT

The duke was instrumental in getting the royals on screen, but his reduced funeral coverage will reflect how he came to regret the increasingly torrid exposure

By numerous accounts, Prince Philip liked being proved right – so there might be posthumous vindication in his death getting broadcasters into trouble. The BBC's decision to reduce its five national TV networks and 11 radio networks into a single obituary stream for much of the day led to a rush of complaints – and a rapid email to staff acknowledging that subsequent coverage would be scaled back.

This diminution of coverage neatly reflected the duke's relationship with broadcast media: over eight decades he went from not being able to get enough airtime to not wanting any. In line with his wishes, his funeral tomorrow will be televised, by modern royal standards, as minimally as possible.

Continue reading...

Experience: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

I have two pieces of fish, an onion, an egg, baked beans and biscuits. Being a farmer means every day is the same

I have lived in the Teifi valley, in west Wales, all my life: 72 years. I'm a farmer and look after 71 sheep. My boyhood was spent helping my family on the farm. I have never wanted to run away from it, even as a young lad. This valley is cut in the shape of my heart. I once visited a farm in England, about 30 years ago; that was the only time I left Wales.

Many of the friends I grew up with left to find work in the big cities. As a young man, I was offered a job in Scotland on the oil rigs, but I could never leave. My heart belongs here with the birds and the trees. I knew, if I left, I'd be thinking about my valley the whole time, so what would be the point? All I want is right here.

Continue reading...

Why the big bright dress will be a post-lockdown fashion staple

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 01:33 AM PDT

Loose, lightweight and perfect for dancing, voluminous frocks promise freedom from fake tan, tailoring and depilation

As we prepare to peel off our jogging bottoms and tentatively reintroduce our lower halves to the world, retailers are betting on the big bright dress as the look of the socially distanced summer.

"Breezeable", "voluminous" and "forgiving" are some of the terms designers are using for the loose, midi-length style, which is omnipresent in current collections.

Continue reading...

At last, printed menus and a chance to wear smoky eyeshadow again | Grace Dent on restaurants

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

'Restaurants are back, back, back, so I booked breakfast to see off the misery of the past year'

In the happy run-up to last Monday's grand reopening of restaurants and pubs, a fleck of disquiet seeped into the shallower end of my brain. I have craved many things over these recent months of confinement – printed menus, petits fours, the chance to wear smoky eye kohl – but one thing I'd not missed was Fomo (that's "fear of missing out", should you not be up on modern acronyms). Fomo is the pernicious, all-consuming suspicion that other people elsewhere are having fun or, in my case as a restaurant critic, eating at better, more exclusive restaurants on nicer tables, which they booked ages ago. If I were to put a face on this hypothetical person, he would be a tall man with shaggy brown hair who plays jazz piano. Let's call him Jay Rayner. OK, it is Jay Rayner, but, sometimes, it is other people.

Fomo is pathetic, but also sinister, because it sabotages your ability just quietly to "be". Thankfully, it's at its most acute in teenagers, which is why merely asking one of them to look directly at you for upwards of half a minute, rather than at a phone displaying constantly revolving reels of "other people having fun", is deemed an act of war. Fomo is more complex still by your late 20s, when it comes with a second layer of the lesser-known Jomo (joy of missing out). This is when anxiety about Friday night Fomo is followed by waking brightly at 7am on a Saturday without a hangover, and with the freedom to make wholesome plans: hot yoga, bottomless brunch and, inevitably, a saunter to a farmers' market to spend £35 on four heritage parsnips.

Pre-pandemic, and now in my 40s, I experienced both Fomo and Jomo, as well as that sharpest, diary-related thrill of all: "High as a kite on cancelled plans." This is when the date you made six weeks ago to "catch up" at 8pm this coming Friday with an old colleague "for a bite" is cancelled by the other party at 5.20pm, leaving me to haul my grumbling knee home, unhook my bra as I walk up the corridor and drape it over the bannister before eating leftover pasta out of Tupperware in front of The One Show. Actual ecstasy. Then came Covid, and all these things were taken away.

But now they're back, back, back. At the start of April, as whispers began to reach me of other people's holiday cottages in the Ribble Valley and someone who'd booked the private room at a fun Soho restaurant for every weekend in May, an inner voice told me that I was already way behind. There was a level of emotional calm back in those days when nobody seemed to be having fun, except the Kardashians and the Beckhams, both of whom learned by the 10th internet pile-on to be discreet.

Continue reading...

The ‘doctor’ keeps watch: Assad posters loom over shattered Syria – in pictures

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 11:15 PM PDT

On cars, restaurant walls and buildings reduced to rubble, Bashar al-Assad's face is plastered across the country, a decade after he crushed the first protests against his rule. By photographer Rami al-Bustan

Continue reading...

Handwashing and hot tea: Eswatini celebrates roll out of solar-heated water

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT

New stations at health clinics improve hygiene in locations where warm water seen as 'an absolute luxury', helping to tackle Covid

In Eswatini, the southern African country which lost a prime minister to Covid-19 in December and where most people have no access to hot water, handwashing – a key weapon in the fight against the pandemic – has been a problem.

No government health clinic in the kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, had hot running water for patients. Nine out of 10 didn't have hot water for operations and cleaning instruments.

Continue reading...

Why so many lobbyists are courting Senate Democrat Joe Manchin

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:00 AM PDT

The most conservative Democrat can decide whether bills are signed or left to meander in political purgatory in Congress

An increasing large number of lobbyists and outside groups in America all have a similar target: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

And it's understandable why. In a Senate where Democrats hold the slimmest of majorities a vote by Manchin, the most conservative Senate Democrat, can decide whether legislation is signed into law or left to meander in political purgatory in Congress.

Continue reading...

Scott Morrison and health authorities warn Australians not to ‘jump to conclusions’ over blood clots

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 02:11 AM PDT

The prime minister says a 48-year-old NSW woman who died after receiving the Covid vaccine had 'comorbidities and other issues'

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Australia's chief medical officer have warned people not to "jump to conclusions" and assume a 48-year-old woman who died with blood clots developed them due to the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

The woman, from Lake Macquarie on the state's Central Coast, died on Wednesday after receiving the vaccine, reportedly last Friday.

Continue reading...

‘If we don’t give, people don’t eat’: Yemen focus of UK Ramadan giving

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 04:46 AM PDT

As Britain cuts aid to war-torn country on brink of famine Muslim charities are directing donations towards feeding population

The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which started this week, is the biggest period of giving for UK Muslims.

According to research by the Muslim Charities Forum, in 2018 the UK's estimated 3.5 million Muslims donated more than £120m to global charitable causes during Ramadan, at a rate of £46 every second.

Continue reading...

Scientists sound warning note over malaria drug resistance in Africa

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 02:19 AM PDT

Rwanda study raises fears erosion of efficacy may have begun, with children at greatest risk

Resistance to malaria drugs in Africa may be starting to take hold, according to a study that maps changes similar to those seen a decade ago when drug resistance spread in south-east Asia.

In Cambodia and neighbouring countries, the artemisinin drug compounds widely used against malaria are no longer always effective. The falciparum malaria parasites have developed genetic mutations that allow them to evade the drugs. There has been great concern that drug resistance could spread to Africa, which has the highest burden of cases of this type of malaria – and the highest toll of child deaths from it.

Continue reading...

Indianapolis: police respond to shooting at FedEx facility – video

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 12:57 AM PDT

At least eight people have been shot and killed at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the suspected gunman killed himself, police have said. Multiple other people were injured and taken to local hospitals, a police spokesperson, Genae Cook, said at an early morning news conference on Friday

Continue reading...

Adam Toledo did not have a gun in his hand, says family lawyer – video

Posted: 16 Apr 2021 12:13 AM PDT

Adam Toledo, a 13-year old boy shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, was not carrying a gun, his family's lawyer has said, contrary to claims made by the police department. Officials released to the public graphic body-camera footage showing an officer shooting Adam, who appeared to have his hands raised. 'Those videos speak for themselves,' said Adeena J Weiss-Ortiz, the family's lawyer. 'Adam, during his last second of life, did not have a gun in his hand'

Continue reading...

Bisket Jatra celebrations in Nepal – in pictures

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 11:00 PM PDT

Thousands of Nepalese gathered to celebrate the Bisket Jatra festival in the town of Thimi, despite a government request for gatherings not to exceed 25 people. As part of the celebrations, coloured powder is spread to welcome the arrival of spring. Bisket Jatra began on Saturday and lasts for nine days

Continue reading...

'Justice isn't even a word to me': Daunte Wright's parents speak out after shooting – video

Posted: 15 Apr 2021 02:29 PM PDT

The family of Daunte Wright expressed their grief and shock after he was shot dead by a white police officer in Minnesota last Sunday. His mother, Katie Wright, said it was impossible for her to imagine justice for her son's death. 'We're never going to be able to see our baby boy again,' she said. Wright's father, Aubrey, said: 'He was a good kid. And the way he was killed, he did not deserve that. Can you blame my son for being scared of the police?'

Continue reading...


Posting Komentar